Daily Meditation: November 21, 2020

by Marsden Moran on November 21, 2020

Jesus perceived the craftiness of the scribes and priests and said to them, “Show me a denarius. --Whose head and whose title does it bear?” They said, “The emperor’s.” He said to them, “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

- Luke 20:23-25


Prior to the reign of David, it was the political practice for a new dynasty to seize the property of the vanquished dynasty, kill the family and leadership, and enslave their followers. If you are smugly chuckling at the temporal irony of that opening, don’t. There is a graceful little human story tucked away in 1 and 2 Samuel to help us separate our God-stuff from our ‘Caesar’ stuff. Painfully needed.

About three thousand years ago, after Saul and his son Jonathan and many of his family were killed at the hands of the Philistines, Saul’s remaining family and followers fled for their lives. The crazy-loyal shepherd David deeply lamented the death of Saul and Saul’s son Jonathan, David’s friend. Yet David moved on. He had just ‘won the election’, he was anointed King of Judah, and there was much to do. For the next fifteen or so years he dispatched his governance with skill and benevolence. Revenge was not David’s style, nor the style of his kingdom.

At the peak of his reign, David looked back on loyalty and friendships past. For us it would be like the moments of gratitude, humility, and reflection we might take at the peak of our success, asking, “Who helped me get here?” [In 2 Samuel 9:1-13] David asks, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” Ziba, a former servant in Saul’s household answers the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; [but] he is lame in both feet. [not our kind].” His name is Mephibosheth, his feet were injured as a child, fleeing the Philistines. He lives in a barren land, Lo-debar, in poverty; fearfully protecting his anonymity.

David summons Mephibosheth, who bows, terrified before the king. David says, as would Jesus a thousand years later, “Fear not. I have only good news for you.” David gives Mephibosheth all his grandfather’s land and slaves and adds that the crippled young man will henceforth dine at the King’s table. To the king, Mephibosheth says of himself, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”

Precisely. Like Joseph the patriarch’s brothers, like the Prodigal Son, like ourselves by Jesus; we are born again by the grace of the king; we deserve nothing, the gift of a new life is unconditional. We are who we are entirely by the Grace of God; not by the grace of the color of our skin or the color of our vote or the count of our denari. Let it go. Please. Picture Mephibosheth arriving in the King David’s dining hall. Seated around the table are clever, winsome, Amnon; the beautiful Tamar; Solomon, the brilliant mind; Hollywood-Absalom; and the decorated warrior Joab. They stare at the empty seat then hear the clomp-sship-clomp of the crippled hic dragging himself to the table on hand-made crutches. In silence, he takes his seat, looking down at the table in shame; the King welcomes Mephibosheth as one of his own, and the tablecloth covers his legs.

Whatever the size of our Thanksgiving celebrations this year, let it not determine the size of our gratitude, nor our willingness to take our place at the King’s table, where we are welcomed as His own. And the tablecloth will cover…wounds, what wounds?

Musical Reflection Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis - Vaughan Williams

We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your abundant and great mercies for which we raise boisterous and joyful gratitude. Always. Amen.